Summary

Bridge receives a message from a man that wants to meet him. Apparently, Bridge will meet him. But, he will go back in time to do so. It's all confusing. It doesn't help when a man in a cape arrives at SPD in a green flash.

Summary

“I'm a dirty mutant, father,” Syd spits, and some of the sounds around her clatter into silence. “Your Soulmate is a dirty mutant. What the fuck does it matter if Sky is a mutant when everyone you care about save your son is a mutant too?”

Jake Drew’s face is stony. “Darling, you know not to talk to me like that.” His tone is the exact same one that Syd recognizes from when she was a kid. It’s that no-nonsense one that brokers no argument, the one that signifies a Truth that can’t possibly be false.

But for once, Syd knows the truth. She’s a grown-ass woman who has found her Soulmates, who has fought the world’s greatest threats, who has laid down her life time after time to defend the world and those she loves. She has stood up to Cruger and to Grumm, to Broodwing and even to her own team. She knows where her voice is, knows that she carries a strength that her father cannot take from her. “I’m not your little girl anymore, father. I’m an adult and a Ranger, and I’m not going to listen to you speak to me or my Soulmates like that.”

Summary

There are places that sometimes people whisper about, places where magic and science and people live in harmony together. There are places where the very air vibrates with energy, where you can find anything if you just know how to look for it.

They are named things like Briarwood, and Summer Cove, and New Tech City, and Ocean Bluff, and family. They are full of things like love and faith and pain.

Anna Maxwell grows up with Marks streaking across her arms and magic streaking from her fingers. The summer after fifth grade Anna ends up in Briarwood, where she meets a red-haired Warlock whose smile is bright enough to light up any Darkness. He reminds her of her Dad, who to this day still wears yellow and a smile on his face, who to this day never says a bad word about the future, despite the horrors he has seen.

Eve Delgado grows up with crackling Shields under her fingertips, a legion of duplicates behind her back. She knows the power of magic, of mutant abilities, of all the things the world calls wrong.

She grows up knowing that her name means 'life,' that her parents named her after their hope for her future.

Summary

"Looks like you'll have plenty of stories to tell at the planned meetup," Tori says with a smile.

"If Operation Overdrive's problems last for much longer, we all will," Adam says, "And probably not all of them will be fun."

The humor in the room dips for a moment as the more 'familial' aspect of the conversation slides away, replaced by a certain level of apprehension towards the future. None of them are scared- they've all won their wars before, defeated great evil and saved entire worlds- but they know the dangers of fighting villains such as these. The five gathered in this living room know that better than most, know it better even than the five Overdrive Rangers talking in the game room.

"But in the end things will work out happily," Bridge says, "They always do, because we're Rangers, and we always succeed. And the Rangers downstairs are going to win, once they get their Powers back, and they'll know that too."

(A series of one-shots revolving around Once A Ranger. Each chapter will be noted as to what characters/series of Power Rangers that are involved.)

Summary

When Grumm is still undefeated, it's very hard to find any time in which the five Soulmates can be off their shifts two or three at a time, much less all five of them. It only really happens once, and they all decide to go on a date to a magic show- but then monsters attacked and Syd got possessed and so they've pretty much agreed to ignore that the whole thing happened.

After Grumm is defeated, they decide to try for Date #2 with all five of them.

“I know the perfect restaurant," Bridge says, "Anyone other than Syd ever been to Ocean Bluff?”

Summary

Sky has faith in his Soulmates. They know him, and they’ll recognize that the monster in his body isn’t actually him.

(Right?)

-

Sky's voice is quiet and kind of raw when he asks: “When did you realize that he wasn’t me?”

He glances up at the other Rangers and regrets it immediately. Their expressions are ones of guilt, with the exception of Bridge who says honestly, “At about 1400 hours, this afternoon.”

And that would be about half an hour before they found him- so half a day with the fake Sky and no one had picked up on the fact that he had been acting differently.

“It’s only been two weeks,” Sky says, “And that’s not enough time to learn about a person, I know, but I thought…” His words trail off as his fingers curl around his knees. He’s not used to uncertainty, to feeling unsure in himself and his words, to all of these feelings being in this relationship have caused him. His voice is barely a whisper when he continues with: “I…I hoped…”

(Working out a relationship between four people who've known each other for fifteen years and one person who just stumbled into this isn't as easy as you'd believe.)

Summary

Scott's seen what happens when the monsters attack and the Rangers are too late, seen the damage that evil can wreak. And from Cruger’s stories, the evil that is coming is far more powerful than anything that came before. The evil that is coming, probably twenty years out from now, will be enough to level the entire earth as well as the rest of the galaxy.

They need heroes with the power to save the world. And the only way to do that is to have subjects willing to have Siberian DNA spliced with their own.

-

Scott meets Lia at the testing facility. Lia is blind and looking for a way to restore her sight, a way to get back to her brother who disappeared a year ago.

And she has Scott’s Marks on her arm.

-

After the experiments, Lia continues to search for her brother and Scott gears up to join Earth's fledgling S.P.D.- spear-headed by Nathan Tate, Cruger, and Dr. Kat- when they get the big news: Lia's pregnant.

Scott starts to believe in hope again, but then he and Lia end up in a car accident when she’s only a week from the delivery. Lia dies in the accident, but only after their son is born.

Summary

Jack and Z are fifteen years old, bitter and seeking to find acceptance, when Bridge and Syd write to say that they’re joining S.P.D. like their parents did.

Years later when they join the S.P.D. team and find out that the B Squad Pink and Green are their soulmates it's a pretty strange- but great- moment.

Things aren’t perfect. The four of them sharing Marks isn’t an end-all, be-all, everything’s sunshine and roses guarantee. After all, Syd’s a bit stuck-up, Jack has trust issues, Bridge can’t communicate very well, and Z has a tendency to put other lives above her own. All four of them have their major issues, and sometimes they find themselves fighting more than flirting.

But the Marks mean the four of them are meant to be the parts that complete each other- but only after a bit of work and faith in each other. So they do try. And it mostly works.

(But sometimes, when Jack is looking at his arm, at the familiar green and red and pink and orange ink on his skin, he sometimes wishes- and he hates admitting it- but he sometimes wishes that there was blue there as well.)